Sure, we Villanos can appreciate the typical tourist stuff. But one of our favorite strategies when visiting a big city is to find the biggest crowds and head in the opposite direction. This was our plan earlier in the week after arriving for four months in London. Instead of spending hours upon hours in queues […]
Dear Mr. Umbroller: I might as well come out and just say it: When we received you as a gift at my wife’s first baby shower, I was not impressed. Your fraying nylon seat made you seem flimsy and cheap. Your plastic wheels made you feel disposable. Also, you came from Wal-Mart, and for some […]
Two cocktails into our final domestic Date Night of 2013, Powerwoman popped the question about our impending (we leave in two days) semester-long move to London. “Are you nervous?” she asked. At first, I didn’t know how to respond. I mean, I’ve spent the better part of the last eight months thinking about the epic […]
For most of us, family vacations are so exhausting that the grown-ups are lucky to get an hour of alone time between the moment the kids fall asleep and the moment we follow suit. Still, every now and again (and hopefully more frequently than that), some of us might want to use that solo time […]
Twelve days. That’s all that stands between our family and an overnight plane ride from San Francisco to London, which will be our home from Aug. 21 through Christmas. For months, the Big Move has seemed like a mirage, something that sounded great but wasn’t actually happening, a family-focused fantasy akin to my daydream of […]
What’s the most family-friendly destination in Toronto? According to my recent blog post for “Have Family Will Travel,” the family travel blog from Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, it’s Centre Island, one of the barrier islands smack in the middle of the city’s harbor. The story, titled, “Family Day Trip for Dad: Toronto’s Centre Island,” […]
For many family travelers, the notion of crashing with youngsters at a romantic inn is a recipe for an anxiety attack. What if they’re loud? What if they disturb the neighbors? What if efforts to control the kiddos trigger an all-out melt down? Yes, these are all legitimate concerns. But in the right kind of […]
In my experience as a parent, the most kid-friendly travel destinations involve adventure, interactivity, constantly changing scenery (to keep things interesting), and a quest. They take the ordinary and make it extraordinary. They spark imagination. And they allow for souvenirs. For all of these reasons, Glass Beach, part of MacKerricher State Park in the tiny […]
After two-thirds of a mommy-free, 3-day road-trip with my girls, I can tell you this: Solo-parent family travel is a LOT harder than I ever thought it would be. In my abbreviated experience, challenges generally come in two main flavors: Kid-time and alone-time. The ones during kid time should come as no surprise. Meals are […]
A few weeks ago, when Powerwoman decided to book a 4-day trip to see friends and family members back East (we both hail from New York), I was left with a number of options to entertain the girls. The County Fair! Museums in the city! Kicking it at home! Had I chosen any one of […]